Category Archives: Sau Tao

I’ve reviewed a few of these Hong Kong instant rice noodles in the past, but never looked up the meaning of Ho Fan. I did some research and found this on wikipedia:

While shahe fen and he fen are transliterations based on Mandarin, there are numerous other transliterations based on Cantonese, which include ho fen, hofen, ho-fen, ho fun, ho-fun, hofoen (a Dutch transliteration in Suriname), hor fun, hor fen, sar hor fun, etc. In addition, shahe fen is often synonymously called kway teow (粿條), literally “ricecake strips”, transliteration based on Min Nan Chinese, POJ: kóe-tiâu) or guotiao(pinyin: guǒtiáo; the corresponding transliteration of Mandarin), as in the name of a dish called char kway teow. However, shahe fen and kway teow are strictly and technically not the same (the latter being essentially ricecakes sliced into strips) and the Min Nans in general still consciously make a distinction between shahe fen and kway teow in their speech. Original ricecakes or its strips are very stiff in texture (even after cooking), making them unpopular with modern consumers.

Sounds like what we’re looking at here. Let’s check out this Sau Tao Ho Fan!

Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Contains fish. To prepare, add noodle block to 600ml boiling water and cook 2 minutes, stirring gently. Add in sachet contents and stir. Enjoy!

The noodle block.

The powder soup base.

Has a prawn scent.

The seasoned oil sachet.

Oily!

Finished (click image to enlarge). Added fishball and coriander. The noodles are very wide and flat and made of rice. They are slippery but have a nice texture to them – good stuff. The broth was on the light bland side; could of used a little more something or a little less than the directed amount of water for my taste. 3.0 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 087303861521.

I reviewed one of these the other day – the pork ribs flavor. Got my son Andy over here today and he’s been a little more adventurous in trying new flavors. I thought this one might be a good match – I had him choose between duck, mushroom and this. I knew he’d pick the tomato; kind of a no-brainer there.

Andy’s been blogging more these days – over at his blog Andy’s LEGO Stuff you can see what he’s got to say about things he builds and if you click on the Pokemon Andy link there, you can check out his other passions. It’s pretty cool – when I was his age I had less than a tenth of the computer experience as he does today. When I was 9 years old, we’d had Radio Shack TRS-80 computers in the schools, running word processors like Super Scripsit. At the public library, we could sign a sheet and reserve an hour of time each week when my mom would walk with me down there and we’d play Hamurabi on an Atari 800. My wife Kit was floored when he told us a couple days ago that he was working on a Powerpoint presentation at school. Times have changed, although a kid’s choice of tomato over mushroom and duck kind of stays the same. Let’s see how this one fares!

Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, add noodle block to 600ml boiling water and cook for about 4 minutes. Add in oil and powder sachet contents, stir and enjoy!

The noodle block.

The soup base sachet.

Has a nice tomato scent.

An oil sachet.

A light colored oil.

Finished (click image to enlarge). Added beef, carrot and sweet onion. The noodles had a nice texture as before; it’s kind of hard to tell a big difference as far as there being oats used in the ingredients. The broth is light, but has a very authentic tomato flavor which I enjoyed. 3.5 out of 5.0 stars. By the way – Andy gave it 4.5 stars once it gained a couple slices of cheese! UPC bar code 087303862764.

I used to a lot of barbecuing a few years back and one thing I always liked to grill up were pork ribs. I would often have a couple of friends over and we would drink a few beers and exclaim ‘spicy pork ribs’ in a strange overdone Southern accent which would end up sounding more like Boss Hogg from Dukes Of Hazzard screaming ‘spassy poke relbs.’ I always liked to get the boneless ‘country style’ ribs in bulk and then do a nice dry rub. Nowadays, I don’t barbecue as much (mainly because I don’t have a barbecue) and my wife’s Uncle Joe has a really snazzy barbecue rig that you can control wirelessly and slow cook/smoke meats for hours effortlessly. His stuff comes out just amazingly – so now I leave it the pros. American barbecue ribs are generally a lot different than what you’ll find in Asia. Sau Tao is a company out of Hong Kong which makes a lot of different varieties of noodles. Today it’s oat noodles. They’re non-fried and have a nice texture to them (at least the ones I’ve had in the past did). Let’s check out Sau Tao’s Oat Noodles with Pork Ribs flavor!

Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, add noodle block to 600ml boiling water and cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in contents of sachets and stir. Enjoy!

Here’s the noodle block.

The dry seasoning sachet.

Has a sweet scent.

An oil sachet.

Has a sesame scent.

Finished (click image to enlarge). Added pork and sweet onion. The noodles have a welcoming chew and whose soft texture works well. The ample amount of broth features a kind of light flavor with notes of star anise and sesame. A nice braised pork kind of taste. 3.5 out of 5.0 stars. UPC bar code 087303862306.

Here’s one I got up in Canada a while back. These noodles are made with oats. A lot of different ways to make noodles – different gauges, lengths, colors – and ingredients make them all different. Oats sound like a logical way to go – wondering if anyone has ever heard of a soybean noodle ever made? Hmm… I bet someone’s made one! Anyways, let’s try these ones – abalone flavor!

Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, add noodle block to 600cc boiling water and cook for 4 minutes. Add contents of sachets, stir, and enjoy!

The oat noodle block.

Soup base sachet.

Has a kind of shellfishy kind of scent.

An oil sachet.

A very light colored oil of which I do not detect much of a scent.

Finished (click image to enlarge). Added green onion and sweet onion. The noodles are pretty good with a nice chewiness. They are a little firmer than your everyday baseline wheat noodle, but about the same gauge. The broth was on the bland side, and a little disappointing. Not a whole lot of flavor. 1.75 out of 5.0 stars. UPC code 087303862283.

I think most people think of wonton soup and think of what they find in Chinese restaurants in the United States. Usually a thin broth, maybe a glass noodle or two and some little dumplings with meat inside. Well, I have a feeling that’s more geared to the American palate. Just look at the picture on the front of this package; whole head-on shrimps well as mushrooms too. Looks really good! Let’s see what this Sau Tao variety is like.

Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Contains flounder powder. To prepare, boil 600cc water. Add noodles and cook for a minute and a half. Add sachet contents, stir, and enjoy. What’s kind of interesting here is that the instructions mention the words ‘take out.’ I’ve seen this before as meaning to drain the water off, but I’m hoping that’s not the case here. In the end, I couldn’t imagine eating these noodles without soup; they’d be unpalatably salty and oily, so I’m going to say if these had been meat to be served soupless, they’d have gotten zero stars.

The noodle block. Thin, wispy noodles.

The soup base powder sachet.

Has a strong seafood scent.

A chilli oil sachet.

Smells good!

Finished (click image to enlarge). Added sweet onion and shrimp. The noodles were thin and almost a little dry even though swimming in broth. They had a texture I didn’t like; chewy, yes but almost crumbly; non-elastic. The broth on the other hand was excellent. A very nice balance of a seafood broth and slight heat from the chilli oil was very nice. 2.75 out of 5.0 stars.UPC bar code 087303860609.